Management is meant to manage, but what if it mismanages or fails to manage, will it still then qualify to be called as such?
This thought echoed through my mind as I sat through the function at the headquarters of the All India Railwaymens Federation today in New Delhi. Yes it is true that the primary function of any management is to manage, but have we been able to live up to it in railways is something that bothered me throughout the event. Having failed in the primary role of providing materials, infrastructure and manpower and also in the process succeeding in bringing the organization to the verge of bankruptcy can by no stretch of imagination be regarded as the true role of the management.
It is indeed true that the integrity and commitment of the top union guys is far superior to what the top guys in railway (mis)management have. It is also true that rank incompetence of almost the entire officer cadre of the railways in making things happen is a time proven phenomenon. What is also time proven is the inherent ability of the entire fleet of babudom in stopping things from happening. Yet I refuse to accept that management can be a body that has only a negative role, and that leads me to another string of thought, that if we are not the management, then what is the difference between us and the workers, only in salaries and perks.
During my entire tenure at the division, what we got at the PNM meetings was flak for incompetence and maybe perhaps at times appreciation for our sincerity, not delivery. Appreciation only because we tried in an environment where almost everyone has given up in sheer despair. Deeply tied in knots so complex that perhaps only a superman or the lord almighty himself can unwind. Why then should officers be accountable for results and also to be answerable to the unions and the staff when the power they wield is miniscule and often not more than what a lowly employee in the railways has?
Scrap the PNM’s and be an indistinguishable part of the whole, the whole that is constituted by the over fourteen lakh employees that the organization wields its stick over is perhaps the only wise solution for a bureaucracy that is credited with repeated suicidal attempts.
do you think the basis of the general management and the basis of indian bureaucracy to be same?
ReplyDeletethe principle on which the indian bureaucracy stands is illogical and to assess it from the logical viewpoint would logically be illogical.
when u, after so long being a part of it, say, carrying courage in heart n lungs, that bureacratic system has failed & is further falling, it strenthens the thought of it standing on infected roots. it is indeed being in fools paradise to expect healthy body with infected blood running within.
the rly. officer feels being superior to fellow promotees, the scra feels superior to dr's, the irs feels superior to rly. officers, the ips feels so with irs, the ias feels so with ips, the ifs feels so with ias then within them they themselves feel so with each other, then the caste's grp.s feels so within them and it goes endless. it's all superiority n inferiority in focus, approach, thoughts. where is the focus on organisation, country, efficiency, performance. when objective is
superficial, failed success in installments will continue to overlap the dirt within.
only their God may help them.
This is absolutely correct. We are so divided and are facing the consensus on clear objectives. People like you may have come out to speak the mind but most are afraid of backlash and become status quoists. We indeed are on the way to become weak as person hence the fall.
ReplyDeletepl. comment.
I agree. Pl remember that we are servants of the government, not servants of the servants of the government. Why should one be afraid of the pigmies, unless of course our hand is also in the till.
DeleteWhat about trasnfers of non-compliant officers? Who is willing to serve in Dongapusi or Purna or Mariani or Katni? Well, it is an unfair world and those who comply to wishes of powerful top get everything in life.
ReplyDeleteThe life of a tiger is not for those who are afraid or not willing to pay the price for their acts of omission or comission. It is ones own choece as to how he wishes to live his life.
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